During the week, I work hard with all my students to develop speaking ability in English. They are pretty excellent at reading and writing in English, so I am mostly working with them on having confidence in the face of public speaking using a foreign language. I've just completed my demonstration class; it involved teachers and administrators auditing my sixth grade class and evaluating my abilities as a teacher. I believe it was a smashing success. At school I have also begun working with the music department on guitar, piano, and voice performance with my kids. It also creates a really relaxed environment for them to ask me questions about myself or my country or the intricacies of the English language. I really love my job; while it can be exhausting at times, I thoroughly enjoy my work as an elementary teacher at Dukin Elementary.
I am lacking photo's of my school, and for that I apologize. I am working on selecting a digital camera to purchase for my personal use and enjoyment. Speaking of my enjoyment, the weekends here are fantastic! Tons of opportunity to travel or explore have presented themselves; I've been trying new things and getting lost in a different culture.
I've just returned from a weekend visit to Jinju for the lantern festival. I won several hundred thousand won (several hundred dollars) playing some blackjack at the Daegu casino, and decided to use the money for a weekend trip to check out a traditional Korean festival. My travel buddies and I spent the night at a 24-hour spa called "chim-ji-bahng," 찜질방 and we've just arrived back in Daegu. Today is a federal holiday for national foundation day, the day that the Korean people celebrate the entire Korean peninsula springing up out of the ocean.
There are many things in the world. One of the things is the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival. I recommend that if you are ever in the neighborhood, you check it out. If you are not in the neighborhood, give the website a glance. http://www.yudeung.com/
Slowly I am becoming more skilled at navigating my city (Daegu), but it is certainly a fun challenge to drop into a different city and try to make your way around town. The weekends are always full of exciting adventures. The downtown area, Banwoldang, is always a busy spot during Friday and Saturday evenings. The area is filled with restaurants, bars, dance clubs, karaoke rooms, etc... so it is a popular rally point for people on the weekend.
I've begun taking Korean language class twice each week. Once on Friday afternoon and once each Tuesday evening. The classes are from different organizations, so sometimes there is overlap between teaching materials. However, I am quickly increasing my skills in reading Hangul (Korean script) and have been practicing my pronunciations with anyone who has the patience to listen to my drivel.
I've just begun to play soccer with a group of Australians. We "Sydney Street Studs" play our matches near Keiymyeong University campus every Sunday. Next week we play against the regional champions of the foreign leagues. Also giving me some modicum of exercise, hiking provides some superb views of the city and surrounding areas. My personal recommendation is to pay close attention to the suggested difficulty of a hike and bring plenty of water (note the sweaty exhausted hikers above)
Korean's decorate every piece of their temples from top to bottom. Planning enough time to appreciate and examine the minutia of the art and architecture is essential for a satisfactory visit to any place like this (pictured above is a structure of Jinju castle/fortress)
This tunnel is made of wishes! Lanterns to transport wishes decorate this tunnel. I sent my wishes on a floating lantern that went bobbing down the river in Jinju.
The Koreans LOVE to swim...in the sea, in mountain streams, swimming pools, etc. Outside the temple that is the birthplace of circle buddhism, I couldn't help myself but to join them!
So a brief anecdote, unrelated to any of the photo's. The night taxi's in Daegu are known as "bullet taxis" because they travel so quickly across town. If you miss the last subway 11:30pm, these taxis are the ones that will get you home. BUCKLE your safety belt and hold on to your peaches! The ride in this taxi exceeds the excitement of riding some roller coasters in my mind.
Got to do some climbing/ziplining with my free time on one of my weekends. We all had fun celebrating successful completion of the "expert" course at Herb Hills with a nice dinner and drink, right on top of a mountain!
There are a gazillion things to do with your free time. I've checked out the new Daegu Art Museum. While it was swell, I am something of a gourmand when it comes to visual arts (anything goes and I enjoy it all). My favorite part was the female piano/cello duet playing music in the main atrium (it also didn't hurt that these two musicians were incredibly attractive). I've been fortunate enough to meet other people who share my love of music, and I've been playing some guitar in a group with some other foreign English teachers.
While this piece of fun is certainly overpriced, the shooting range is a hoot. When I was selected first to try my skill with pistol accuracy, I felt some nerves. I am experienced with firearms, but I would have preferred someone else go before me as a reference point. When the instructor put a bulletproof vest on me to go inside the pistol range, I was terrified. I was under the impression that the firearms instructor was going to shoot AT me. Hilarity ensued. Koreans wear protective gear for ANY activity. Anyways, it turns out I am deadly with a 9mm beretta as well as the 12 gauge.
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